Cornell Community
One community I belong to here at Cornell is the community of me and my roommates. We live in lower collegetown away from all the action, which allows for our community to keep to itself. There are eleven of us that live in the house, and we are a diverse group of people. There are the core seven of us that have lived together every year since we lived on the same floor freshman year. Then there are the two transfer students we met sophomore year who became good friends with us, our Ithacan friend who we met through other mutual friends freshman year, and lastly a grad student friend of one of the core seven. All of us are actors within our community and social network. The seven core actors have the closest tie since we have lived together the longest, and the two transfers have a very close tie since they transfered together, and at the same time they have close ties with us because we've known each other 3 years. Our townie friend has had a close tie with us since we met, for whatever reason we all got along great. Probably the weakest tie in the house is between the grad student and everyone he didn't know before moving in, although he still has a strong tie with his childhood friend and our roommate.
Another way I've noticed our ties are changing is the ties are strengthening between the floors. I feel I have a stronger tie with our Ithacan friend since we live together on the first floor, whereas I feel I have one of the weakest ties in the house with the grad student since he lives on the third ffloor. Likewise, I feel the guys on the third floor have a way stronger bond with the grad student since they live together. While some of us share more common ground than others, whether it be childhood friendships, transfering, or living together for 4 years, the common ground we all have now is that we live together now.
We fit in Haythornwaite's model in the sense that we all feel we are close and similar to each other, at least enough to get along for 4 years. Reciprocity appears constantly, whether it be who makes dinner sometime and shares to who picks up beer this week and gets repaid later. The recipricity of favors and exchanges of priveleges allows for us to continue our social interaction.
As far as CMC goes, I don't feel it affects our relationship within the house very much. We don't have much CMC interaction unless it's a brief message like "come downstairs." That's more reserved for when we go home for breaks and want to interact, which has probably increase the strength of the ties between friends in the summers.
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3 comments:
Hi Carlos, I think your post about social networking analysis through living together certainly demonstrates many aspects of the Haythornewaite study. As you said, everyone who live together do form very strong ties to each other and have a very special bond. I too live with 7 other people in C-town and have become very close to them over the past 2 years. It would have been interesting to see how you and your roommates benefited by the weak tie from the grad student. According to Haythornewaite, the weak ties are the most advantageous since they have novel resources that you can utilize. I also have a couple of townie friends and that proved very useful, since they were able to take me to places I did not know about and show me the ‘real’ Ithaca. All in all, I think your blog demonstrates the Social Network Perspective very well.
Carlos,
Interesting post! It’s true that the people you live with form a community, especially since you live in a house with 6 of your closest friends, and 4 others who you also have strong ties with. It’s funny how you mention physical location within the house creating stronger and weaker ties (who lives on which floor). When you all live in the same house, you and your roommates form a common ground that reinforces your previously developed relationships. Yet, people living on the same floor are creating a stronger bond. I guess if I was to live in a house with different floors, I would mostly go to people’s rooms on the same floor out of convenience. In terms of reciprocity, I have developed the same relationship with my roommate. Since I can’t cook my roommate cooks and I wash the dishes. I pay for the internet and she pays for groceries. It is a system that we have created and it works for the both of us.
Carlos,
I think your description of your relationship with your roommates represents very well Haythornwaite's model of social networking. The separation that the living arrangement creates backs up the theory of strong versus weak ties. I found that I could also relate really well to living in a house with other people. Although my roommates and I all live on the same floor, there is a degree of disparity between our relatioships. It is interesting to see the common ground play a role in the development of our relationships as the months go on.
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